Advantages of dual raptors in raid 0?

[TomaHawk47x]

I'm debating whether or not it will be worth it to get 2 raptors for raid 0 over a standard 80gb 7200rpm hd. Ive read several posts related to this, and either the responses are: "it has not real-world effect" or "theyre screaming fast".

here's what ill be using my PC for:
-gaming
-programming c++/VB (not compiling 10s of thousands of lines...just basic stuff)
-movies/mp3/game Downloads

i know i wont be really engaging in any high bandwidth situations, but what advantages will i notice with the raptors over a 7200 rpm HD?

[Bobby]

It depends on what motherboard/raid chip you're putting it on. Personally, I would (and did) raid 2 80gb drives for more space and the speed advantage.

You will notice windows and apps load faster but it won't help with compiling code. It's nice to have but expensive for what it does. I'm getting about 92mb/s with my raid0 compared to 110-140mb/s the Raptor guys are getting and I've noticed a bit of speed in loading games and windows but not much more over a regular WD 80gb SE drive.

Raptors over a single 7200 drive will be a pretty big speed bump. Sounds like you'd be fine with a single 7200, 8mb cache drive.

-Bobby

[TomaHawk47x]

if i get raid, ill just use the onboard controller on the mobo. i have heard corruption issues with it, but i think it can be avoided with a certain BIOS.

[Bobby]

What motherboard are you using? Do you know what raid controller is on there?

-Bobby

[TomaHawk47x]

ill be getting an abit nf7-s rev2

[Bobby]

I'm not an AMD guy but it looks like the raid controller is on the PCI bus so it's a bit slower than the ICH5R which is on the southbridge bypassing the PCI bus.

If you're going raid0, get a pair of 7200 drives. I don't think it'll be worth it for you to get a pair of Raptors. The cost differential and the storage space between Raptors and a pair of 7200 80gb drives is pretty big (100%).

-Bobby